Hi Friends,

I want to end up with a bootable DVD that will automatically start the kickstart script and perform an unattended install. The motive of doing so is that a person who is not having any knowledge related to Linux can able to install it with an ease. I have read a few things that say that ks.cfg must be in the root of the image. I've read other things that say that isolinux/ is really the root, and so the ks.cfg must be there. Neither work. In my isolinux.cfg, I have:

label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192

ks.cfg is in isolinux/ as well as the top-level directory. What am I missing? How do I get the booted OS to read and use ks.cfg?

also i had added "default ks" in isolinux.cfg file
i had used the following command to make the isoimage of ks.cfg i had placed my dump of fedora8 in /bkup/dump3
"mkisofs -o ../cdrom.iso -A 'ISOLINUX' -V 'ISOLINUX' -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table ."

also the .treeinfo and .diskinfo both hidden files are present.
then i created the isoimage of my dump with the command
"mkisofs -o /fedora.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table /bkup/dump3."
then i burned the iso image "fedora.iso" to a dvd with the help of k3b
the dvd is bootable but at boot time when prompt comes i gave the command "linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg"

but its giving me the error
RAMDISK: compressed image found at block 0
crc error
VFS:cannot open root device "<null>" or unknown-block (253,0)
please appened a coorect "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
kernel panic - not syncing:VFS:unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(253,0).

also my directory tree is as follows
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 2008-09-24 19:24 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2008-09-24 19:02 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9627648 2008-09-24 19:24 cdrom.iso
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 109 2007-11-02 20:29 .discinfo
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2882 2007-11-02 20:26 fedora.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18363 2007-11-02 20:26 GPL
drwxrwxr-x 4 root root 4096 2007-11-02 20:26 images
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-09-24 19:23 isolinux
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 94 2007-11-02 20:29 media.repo
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 122880 2007-11-02 19:51 Packages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9680 2007-11-02 20:26 README-BURNING-ISOS-en_US.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172530 2007-11-02 20:26 RELEASE-NOTES-en_US.html
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-11-02 20:29 repodata
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 73728 2007-11-02 19:55 repoview
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1910 2007-11-02 20:26 RPM-GPG-KEY
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1706 2007-11-02 20:26 RPM-GPG-KEY-beta
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1519 2007-11-02 20:26 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1105 2007-11-02 20:26 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-rawhide
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1076 2007-11-02 20:26 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-test
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1232 2007-11-02 20:26 RPM-GPG-KEY-rawhide
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-11-02 20:26 stylesheet-images
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4290 2007-11-02 20:29 TRANS.TBL
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 430 2007-11-02 20:26 .treeinfo

CD ISOLINUX
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-09-24 19:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 2008-09-24 19:24 ..
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 2048 2007-11-02 20:29 boot.cat
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 292 2007-11-02 20:24 boot.msg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 919 2007-11-02 20:24 general.msg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 6587351 2007-11-02 20:24 initrd.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 10932 2008-09-24 19:25 isolinux.bin
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1057 2008-09-24 19:23 isolinux.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1389 2008-09-24 19:14 ks.cfg
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 103260 2007-11-02 20:24 memtest
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 817 2007-11-02 20:24 options.msg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 517 2007-11-02 20:24 param.msg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 490 2007-11-02 20:24 rescue.msg
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 446917 2007-11-02 20:24 splash.jpg
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 117568 2007-11-02 20:24 vesamenu.c32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1978624 2007-11-02 20:24 vmlinuz

VI ISOLINUX.CFG
default ks
prompt 1
timeout 600

display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg

menu background splash.jpg
menu title Welcome to Fedora 8!
menu color border 0 #ffffffff #00000000
menu color sel 7 #ffffffff #ff000000
menu color title 0 #ffffffff #00000000
menu color tabmsg 0 #ffffffff #00000000
menu color unsel 0 #ffffffff #00000000
menu color hotsel 0 #ff000000 #ffffffff
menu color hotkey 7 #ffffffff #ff000000

label linux
menu label ^Install or upgrade an existing system
menu default
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img
label text
menu label Install or upgrade an existing system (^text mode)
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img text
label rescue
menu label ^Rescue installed system
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img rescue
label local
menu label Boot from ^local drive
localboot 0xffff
label memtest86
menu label ^Memory test
kernel memtest
append -
label ks
menu label ^Install from kickstart
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img ks=cdrom:/isolinux/ks.cfg

The problem with me is that kickstart file is not find by the kernel for that installation doesn't proceed.

So I need a great help very urgent.


shubham_np

your biggest problem is that "cdrom.iso". Your ks file is in that iso and that is not where it will be accessible.
As for the path to where you want your ks.cfg, you can put it anywhere, and just reference it during the boot process (or your isolinux.cfg if you want.). When you boot from the install cd and type "linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" you are telling it to read the ks.cfg from the root of the cdrom. If you typed "linux ks=cdrom:/folderA/ks.cfg" you are telling it to read the ks.cfg from a folder "folderA". Also, you don't need to call it ks.cfg, you could call it ConfigA.cfg - just so long as you give it the correct path.

So, the easiest way, is get a correct Fedora install dvd or ISO, copy/extract all the files (including the hidden ones like you mentioned) to a folder. Then copy your ks.cfg to the root of that folder. Then bundle it back up using the mkfsiso you were using above. Burn to a DVD and boot from it. Put the command "linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" and watch it work. Once you have that, then you can play with modifying your isolinux.cfg. I think you are basically correct with your isolinux.cfg modifications, I just haven't done that sort of thing in a while now, so I can't be sure.

Thanks zquez ,

I think that your suggestion will out.Let me check it, anyways thanks a lot.